Release Date: 04/15/08Genre: Indie Rock
They are on Fat Cat records, the same as Animal Collective, so just by reading their name, I was expecting more of a freak folk, psych folk, experimental album, but I got something more low key.
Review: The opener "The Modern Leper" is such a landmark song. It doesn't waste time to get into the build and after the first chorus, it adds a Celtic rhythm that just adds to the texture of the song. At first, the vocals remind me of a mixture of mewithoutYou and Counting Crows, firstly because he doesn't sing sing, he just expresses himself, and secondly because there's a 'out of breathe' style to his vocals. But whatever, i stop hearing other people and found his own method to be better.
"I Feel Better" is a better song, mainly because the music is really good. It's everything a good follow up song should be and that's be strong. "Good Arms Vs. Bad Arms" shows signs of being a power ballad, but it just becomes a solid song in it's own gentle way.
"Fast Blood" is insanely emotional. It just begins like any other song, but there's something about the music that about the halfway point, it catches up and takes over and delivers on all levels with the vocals hanging on, fading to black and all i remember him saying is "goodnight."
I really like "The Twist" just because it actually exceeds my expectations. The song ends beautifully with all ports open. I love that it didn't hold back anything. Plus there's a tireless piano beat throughout the song and it just feels like the payoff at the end is very rewarding. I love how he repeatedly sings "I need human heat." Don't we all?
I love how on track 7, it's just an instrumental passage, but it lets me that it's starting on a clean slate. Because "Heads Rolls Off" is a upbeat tune that will surely get a few nodding heads going. Then to contrast it with "My Backwards Walk" right after is genius. It starts fairly naked so you can really hear the urgentness of the vocals and acoustic guitars slowly move in and it ends.
"It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm" is the best line of the album. He said the F-word a few times in the album, but they all fit and the honestly of it well crafted. "Keep Yourself Warm" wraps a lot of the strong points of the album into one 5 minutes. It has the soft side to them at the beginning, the build, and the song just ends cheerfully.
After another short instrumental track, the final two songs are excellent songwriting and nearly toss every acoustic ballad out of the water. It's simple, but the melody is amazing and i can't help but to allow him to dig deep into my skin.
Summary: For me, this album is on the same level as "Illinois" in which I like every minute of the album, but it's hard to pinpoint a track that really solidify my reasoning. The standout tracks varies so much because it's rare for an album where every song has legs, but it's even more rare for an album to have every song fly. I'm pretty sure that every song on the album has taken a turn as being my favorite. I really can't see this album being better than it already is. I hope I'm not alone.
Key Tracks: Fast Blood, Keep Yourself Warm, Floating In The Forth
Rating: 10/10
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